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logsinthenight2020-11-05 01:56 pm
nextnightmods) wrote in logsinthenight2020-11-05 01:56 pm
EVENT LOG: GHOST TOWNS
EVENT LOG:
GHOST TOWNS
characters: everyone.
location: around town
date/time: november 5-16.
content: carved vegetables, soothing memories, and spreading the light far and wide.
warnings: n/a, please label threads as needed.
it's the promise of a better place.
It's time to relax a little, and appreciate the people you've loved, the things that bring you comfort, and all the other small joys that have followed you from your life back home to Beacon where you now reside. The spirits, drawing again on past holidays and traditions, and now mostly dedicated to helping, have been busy trying to find ways to lift the mood, let you spread light to the darker corners of town, and find ways to make life (or death, as the case may be) a little more pleasant.
I STILL DREAM OF YOU
All around the bonfire are carved vegetables - radishes, turnips, rutabagas, squash, and so on. And as the days draw on, more arrive. Each has a feeling or brief memory attached to it that belongs to someone in town. Whose pumpkin or potato have you found, and can you reunite it with them? Where are yours?
Off in corners around town, you might also still encounter the spirits hard at work and if you approach, they'll squeak and chitter and offer you something to carve or decorate, in case you want to get crafty and help out! How they add the memories remains very much a mystery, but the decorating they'll certainly share.
THAT TRUTH WE CHASE
A strange post appears on the network. Not a photo, not an audio file, no - this one is a video, for one of the first-ever times since the last reset. A fuzzy hand, and then a masked face, appear much too close in front of the camera, then a squeaky song of delight.
But there's another spirit in the background - larger, covered in feathers, with two large round yellow - orbs? - on its chest. It grunts in frustration and reaches, and the camera goes sprawling and clattering to the floor.
As the smaller spirit bounds over to retrieve it, the larger one scolds it in a series of loud clucks. After a dizzying journey across the engineer's shop downtown, the camera finally settles on the fuzzy spirit's masked face again now somewhere near the ceiling, and it yelps cheerfully, gives a two-fingered victory sign into the camera, then sets the tablet down and waves a torch around.
In vibrant blue and purple, the flames form the shape of the words FIND. YOURS. POTATO!
At which point there's a flash of feathers and the screen goes black.
Feel free to reply to the video (perhaps with frustration, as aren't tablets limited to audio or text only?), to go investigate downtown, or to make your own network posts to coordinate finding yours potatoes! Please use ENGINEER as your header if you and a friend (or you alone) are going to visit this spirit or the engineer so mods can easily find the threads for NPCing purposes.
FROM DARK TO DAWN
But that's not the only spirit who has messed with the torches. In fact, when they're not sneaking around with squash, spirits can be seen running off with torches in mouths and hands (and sometimes other appendages - those are some impressive toes!), much too fast and nimble for the frustrated Clara to chase after them, but then later returning and dumping armfuls back into the bonfire, or waving them around in delight as they conduct impromptu raves complete with flashing nonsensical messages like A HAM FHW ERGANTOOO or more simply, ♥.
Many will run up to you with a torch in hand, wave it around, then mime staring at it with hands pressed to their temples (if they have temples, or hands) - and sure enough, all it takes is thirty seconds or so of concentration and you too can have your own customized torch message! Try it out, delight your friends, prank your neighbors, or even try to act helpful and warn of nearby cautions if that's more your style.
If you take a torch from the bonfire, please let us know here!
| QUICKNAV | |||
| comms | | | network β’ logs β’ memes β’ ooc | |
| pages | | | rules β’ faq β’ taken β’ mod contact β’ player contact β’ calendar β’ setting β’ exploration β’ item requests β’ full nav | |
no subject
A solid start. Come, let's ask it.
[Poor spirit has no idea it's about to become part of a life lesson as it just wants to commit some casual fire theft. He does offer it a hand up if the spirit is keen to take it, trying to block it's path so it can't dart off from Clara's interrogation.]
no subject
Clara leans in, smiling.]
And where do you think you are going with that torch? All torch requests must be approved and counted, you know.
[The spirit leans back and tries to pull away, but thunks backward into Kuai's leg. It gives a muffled squeak-growl in surprise, which coincidentally sounds a bit like the word "mauve", then tries to turn and squeeze between Kuai's legs to get away from the much too close robot face.]
no subject
Go ahead and answer her. It's a fair question.
[Kindly grandpa Kuai is in full force.]
no subject
Colors-light. Words-picture take and make! Bring back really really.
[It then looks sharply up at Kuai, and over at Clara, and starts to squirm again.
Clara stands there watching it, hesitates as she looks at her tablet, then directs her face upward at Kuai.]
What did it say?
no subject
[He picks up the dropped torch (avoiding spirit drool) and hands it back to the little spirit. Congrats on surviving robo-interrogation thus far.]
Next time, ask in advance.
no subject
Clara looks at the spirit, contemplates the response, then nods and marks it on the tablet.]
Great! That is an approved use of the torch. I wonder what message though? Is that what they're all doing?
[The spirit nods eagerly, whether it was actually being asked or not.]
no subject
Perhaps. They likely think it's fun.
[Time to go retrieve that sparking torch from the edge of the bonfire and see what this is all about.]
no subject
[Especially the one Kuai picks up, which Clara watches with interest. It throws multicolored sparks from the flames here and there, which is neat enough, but Kuai will notice quickly that focusing on any element of that color, or the movement of the flame, allows him some minimal control over it. The torch flames change shape and color easily as he concentrates.
The spirit, meanwhile, takes the torch back in its mouth and darts off on all fours. Eventually the light from the torch is lost in the darkness of the trees.]
no subject
I'm not the person to comment on what is or isn't fun, but they seem to enjoy it.
[Kuai stares at the torch, turning it thematically blue just because he can, before he realizes what he's doing. ]
Have they always been able to do that?
no subject
[She steps cautiously closer as she speaks, both mystified and fascinated.]
no subject
[He squints at the flame, wondering what he did, or if it's simply reacting to him. Maybe the spirits did something to make the flames match the clothing of whoever wields it? But as he thinks about what fire should look like, it turns back to an orangey red.]
Hm. Curious. Its reacting to what I'm thinking.
[He turns it bright yellow, and then purple, to test it out.]
no subject
Like Kuai's was, this torch is throwing the occasional spark. She holds it and stares hard at it.]
Mine isn't doing anything!
[She manages to sound a little bit disappointed, despite the perpetual smile.]
no subject
Are you thinking about it being a different color? Imagine it being blue.
no subject
[Who knows what she was thinking, but apparently now, she's thinking blue. She's thinking so hard about blue that her eyes dimly turn blue, though it's a little hard to tell as the glass bulbs mostly reflect the flames in front of her.
They're still orange-red.]
Four-hundred fifty nanometers! ... Five hundred twelve!
[Nope.]
no subject
[He reasons that it's probably because she's a robot and emotions work different. Or they had for him when he was a robot anyway - that's his basis for robo-knowledge. But there's another possibility..]
I wonder if it has to do with my lantern. Maybe my lantern connects me to the bonfire. Is that possible?
no subject
[She sets the torch back down and leans in a little toward the lantern.]
Yes, it's possible! The lantern-light and the candle-lights are the same, and the torches are also light, and Dr. Solis always said that light is life and we can't let it go out! I think they could all be connected to the same source! Even if I don't understand exactly how that works. Dr. Solis would have!
I miss her.
no subject
[ Oh no. Don't be sad lil' robo buddy.]
Yes, it's a shame, but she would be proud of you taking on new responsibilities. Tending to the bonfire is very important.
no subject
Except that I have an exclusion policy in place that prohibits me from detecting all of you as manageable inventory.
[She pauses and looks at Kuai with a big broad - oh it's always the same smile.]
However! The policy is somewhat unclear as to whether your lanterns are part of you or if they count as manageable inventory!
no subject
[He watches as a small spirit swindles another torch and disappears into the darkness. Clara seems to have her hands full with them right now.]
Good luck with your torch tracking. I'll see if I can convince them to bring it back.
[Kuai the menacing Lin Kuei warrior, and herder of torch stealing spirits.]
no subject
[Then, either an afterthought or a realization:]
Good luck!